Blog Break-Up

I know this isn't going to be very easy. I'm gonna have to stop looking at some of my favorite blogs until this is over. Since I can't look at them, you go look at them and see how pretty they are:

• SheFinds
• Mighty Goods
• Mighty Haus
• Simple Lovely
• Creature Comforts
• A Cup of Joe
• Outblush
• Bliss

Also, I have to stop looking at the Bargainist. It's a coupon and discount code site, and I just can't look at all these deals that I can't take advantage of.

Spending Hiatus - What I can buy

Just to clarify, there are still things I will be buying, like food. Food is a necessity. But I will stop buying random food when I have food at home that I could eat. That's one way I'm going to save money.

I'll still have to buy presents for Mother's Day and Father's Day, but I'm going to try and make gifts this year. For Mother's Day, I'm writing down memories of my mom, things she's taught me, and questions I have for her, which I'm going to put in a jar so she can open them up one at a time. It doesn't cost me anything, but better than that, it's a more meaningful gift than flowers.

I will keep buying things like shampoo and conditioner and deodorant, because while they might not be absolutely necessary, I need them in order to go to work, or hang out with my friends. But I am going to stop buying hair stuff just because I want it.

So that's what I can buy.

Spending Hiatus

I originally started this blog at the nudging of my friend Kate. I recently bought some clothes at Anthropologie and we were talking about what to keep and what to return. This led me to say something I've been telling myself for awhile: "I should go on a spending hiatus."

One of my favorite bloggers, Simple Lovely, went on a spending hiatus lately, and I liked reading her struggles with it, how she got through it, what she did instead of spending money. I'd like to pay off all my credit card debt and save more money. And I also just want to see if I could do this.

So, as of May 1, I'm going on a three month spending hiatus, through the end of July. I'm not going to spend money on anything non-essential.

Things I will not be buying until August:

• Summer dresses (this will be hard, because I don't have any really casual ones)
• Shirts (not even the cheap ones at Old Navy)
• Pants (I actually need new work pants, because the old ones don't fit me anymore)
• Jewelry
• Hair accessories
• Cards (unless it's for a birthday, holiday, thank you note, although I will try to use blank cards if I have them)
• Music (when my iTunes gift card runs out)

Wallet, I will see you in August!

Tweet this

I read this blog post today, and it got me thinking about Twitter. I'm on Twitter (@ohmypuddin) and I love it. I like following local restaurants and meeting social media folks. I like that I can have a one-on-one conversation with companies. I also use Twitter for work, where I tweet as an entity. You see, I view Twitter as a way to send messages one-to-many AND one-to-one. It's a chance for me, at my job, to converse with many people and one person at the same time.

This guy doesn't get it though. He compares Twitter to CB radios, because he just follows random people he finds. He doesn't seek out anything that might have personal meaning to him, or people he could learn from. He doesn't try to find people he knows personally.

Here's one of the ways I think twitter is awesome: I was on dora.fm (it's pandora + twitter) and I liked a song I'd never heard of before, "Kool Kids" by Justin Trawick, so I tweeted it. Justin found me on Twitter and sent me a message about it.

See? I liked a random song and the singer found me. Now, because he took the time to find me, I'll listen to his other songs and follow him on Twitter.

To me, that's the whole beauty of Twitter. It opens up this whole world of other people and relationships. I hope that blog writer realizes that some day.